Beijing would possibly add extra modules to the recently-completed Tiangong station, a senior house official says
China is contemplating increasing its Tiangong house station, Wang Xiang, the top of the house station system on the China Academy of Area Expertise (CAST), has revealed.
The senior official spoke to the media following the profitable return of the Shenzhou-14 mission astronauts (often known as taikonauts) over the weekend.
“Following our present design, we are able to proceed to launch an extension module to dock with the ahead part of the house station, and the extension module can carry a brand new hub for docking with the following house automobiles,” Wang advised CCTV.
The potential growth might embrace a brand new core module for the station, which presently has three items, the official recommended. Nonetheless, he didn’t verify that these plans had been authorised by Beijing.
The station obtained its last third module, the Mengtian Area Laboratory, again in November. The brand new module accommodates tools for finding out microgravity and conducting experiments in fluid physics, supplies science, combustion science, and elementary physics, in keeping with the China Manned Area Company (CMSA).
The station additionally incorporates the core module Tianhe, which was launched in April 2021, and one other house lab, Wentian. The nation started constructing its personal house station after it was excluded from the Worldwide Area Station (ISS) program in 2011, when the US authorities banned NASA from working with Beijing.
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